Hawthorne Field (II)
Hawthorne Street and Brooklyn Avenue. Also known as Hawthorne Oval (II), and Hawthorne Athletic Field. Opened in 1908, this Hawthorne Field was the long time baseball, lacrosse, and football home to Boys High School, sometime home to Erasmus Hall High and Manual Training, sometime football home to Long Island University and Brooklyn College, host of various commercial baseball leagues, and also home to track meets, several Brooklyn soccer teams, and of course the Hawthorne Athletic Club nine. In August 1908, a cinder running track was laid down, and in 1909, the open stands were replaced with a new covered grandstand. On Saturdays, admission was open for anyone that season, but attendance on Sundays was available only to members of the Hawthorne Athletic Club and their guests - a ruse acceptable under the blue laws of the day. Hawthorne Field was the creation of veteran Flatbush contractor Thomas K. Timony, who retained a hand in the management of the field and was "very popular with the many clubs and schools which made this field their headquarters." When he died, in September, 1912, control passed to his son, James A. Timony. The stands at Hawthorne Field (II) were expanded greatly in November, 1912, when the Thanksgiving Day football game between Erasmus Hall and Poly Prep was scheduled for the ground. These rivals normally met at Washington Park, but Manual High had been too fast to schedule the big field for its own game that year. Carpenters worked on new stands for two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, expecting a huge attendance, only to see the game postponed two days due to a storm. Eventually, a crowd of "more than 2,000" saw Poly's battering ram offense crush plucky but outmatched Erasmus, 26 to 12. In early 1913, the younger Timony acquired the Brooklyn franchise of the outlaw United States Baseball League from Leo Groom. He planned to expand the grandstand and build new bleachers to play home games at Hawthorne Field, but the league did not last long enough for that to happen. Timony then made a serious attempt to acquire a Brooklyn Federal League franchise to play here. In 1913 he was told to wait a year for an eastern expansion, but in 1914 he was beaten to the punch by the Ward Brothers. James A. Timony, an attorney by profession, would not remain in the baseball magnate line for much longer - in 1916 he met Mae West, and spent the rest of his career as her business manager, and as a show business producer and lawyer. On May 28, 1910, 3,000 fans attended the game between Commercial and Boys High Schools for the P.S.A.L. Championship of Brooklyn. Commercial took the title with a 4-0 win, pitcher Pete Green allowing just three hits. In the summer of 1913, a game between Erasmus Hall and Stuyvesant was abandoned during the eighth inning when the last available ball was hit over the fence. Stuyvesant was awarded the game, since they were leading 9 to 5 at the time. Baseball at Hawthorne Field lasted into the early 1930s, but the field remained active until June, 1952, when the last games of professional soccer were played. In 1953 and 1954, the George S. Wingate High School was built at the site, and the playing field, reconfigured at right angles to the original version, became known as Wingate Park. The Parks Department still issues baseball permits for Wingate Park, and it is clear from the wear pattern on the turf that the game is played here to this day. Soccer and track also have their seasons, along with evening concerts in summer. A series of renovations in 1996 and 1997 saw $938,000 spent, partly on improvements to the track and drainage of the turf. Wingate High, like many others in Brooklyn, has been phased out and replaced by smaller schools using the same campus. Wingate Park should not be confused with Wingate Field in Midwood.